Category: UW Experts in the News

Will it be a long, hard winter? Let’s ask Mr. Woolly Bear Caterpillar.

If the cute fuzzy crawler has a big brown stripe in the middle and smaller black stripes on each end, winter will be mild. A small brown stripe in the middle and bigger black stripes, winter will be harsh. At least that’s the scoop in the bug world.

Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Donald A. Downs, an expert in First Amendment law.

Quoted: Joe Newman, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Volker C. Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Giulio Tononi, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Donald Downs, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Allan R. Odden, a professor of educational administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies teacher compensation, â??so the momentum is building.â?

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, UW-Madison political scientist.

Quoted: Stephen Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Narciso Menocal, a professor of art history at the UW-Madison who specializes in architecture.

Quoted: Joel Rivlin, deputy director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Nan Enstad, a cultural historian at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Edward Jesse, UW-Madison professor of agriculture and applied economics.

College students receive an â??Fâ? in national history, according to recent results of a civic literacy test given by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to college freshmen and seniors across the nation.

UW-Madison scored 15th out of 50 schools. Seniors scored an average of 58 percent while freshmen scored an average of 52 percent. According to these results, seniors scored only 6 percent more.

Quoted: Amanda Werhane, liaison librarian and marketing coordinator at Wendt, runs the library’s blog (wendt-library.blogspot.com), which features a collection of links and notes about useful research tools and journals. She’s also set up a Wendt Library page on Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, and posted library pictures on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site.

Quoted: A political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the Milwaukee program for years, John Witte.

Quoted: Ann Kinkade, is director of the Family Business Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Sarah Van Orman, director of clinical services at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Dr. Dennis Maki, infectious diseases chief at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospitals and Clinics.

UW Health Services sees underage drinking as the greatest public health issue on campus.

Officials there believe the issue is one that needs a statewide approach to solve.

“Looking at issues of access and availability for young people is really a critical component to reducing the excessive drinking,” said Susan Crowley with UW Health Services.

Joseph Newman, chairman of the psychology department at UW-Madison and a researcher who works with state prison inmates, said he’s familiar with Mendota and thinks it operates openly and provides safe conditions and strong treatment to patients.

But when patients say they’ve been victimized, Newman said, “I think it does need to go outside the institution when there’s a possibility that the institution is at fault. It seems unwise to let the institution alone make the decision.”

Quoted: David E. Joranson, director of the pain and policy studies group at the University of Wisconsinâ??s medical school.

Quoted: Michael Hunt, a professor of environmental textiles and design at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is generally credited with creating the NORC concept in the mid-1980s.

Quoted: Jeremy Foltz, a University of Wisconsin assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics.

To ward off frost damage overnight, Brent McCown, a professor of horticulture at UW Madison, recommends covering any vegetable plants or flowers that are directly exposed to the sky.

Quoted: There are many warning signs signaling aging eyes need some medical care, says Dr. Amna Buttar, member of the American Geriatrics Society and faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Wisconsin residents flooded by recent torrential rains know firsthand that disasters have a way of exposing problems they previously didn’t know existed.

UW-Madison professor Richard Keller, who is bringing his study of disaster and catastrophe to the classroom, says disasters â?? particularly large-scale, catastrophic ones â?? can also offer revealing glimpses of larger human issues.

Quoted: String theorist Gary Shiu of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, says the fact that not every version of string theory is compatible with inflation is good news, because it will help narrow down which versions of the theory should be further investigated from the vast number of possibilities.

Quoted: Co-author Diana Hess, a professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Aaron Gilson of the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin.